Time for July’s Studio Hangout! It’s coming to you a little late because I wanted to give the Art Fight art feature room to breathe, but here we are with the monthly wrap-up of everything you might’ve missed in July!
Feel free to watch the video above or read and enjoy this article at your own pace below. A transcript of this video (attached to this post) and captions.
Personal Updates
- Layoffs suck, AI sucks, tariffs suck, and life is rough on our end for many reasons, but I’m tired of being mad and sad about it. Tell me something good that happened to you in the comments! (I’ve thankfully got some happier news below in the Announcements)
- Keep your head up, friends and fellow artists. Let’s take it one day at a time!
Announcements
- Upcoming Convention Appearance! I’ll be appearing as an official Guest at Multiverse in October! Read more here. I’m back at cons after 6 years away!
- New Poll! Free & Paid Patreon members, I want to know your thoughts about how you’re liking these Studio Hangouts! Only a couple of folks have responded thus far and I’d like to hear from more of you.
- New Ask Me Anything Archive. We’ve accumulated quite a few Q&As over the past few months, so I’ve finally started listing them in one handy location organized by category. Ask and ye shall receive!
New Art in July
Art Fight 2025 – Go Team Crystals!
Art Fight happened in July and led to the creation of many fun emote portraits of the amazing characters created by the Art Fight community. If you want to deep dive into the reference art created by others not shared here, check out my art feature of Art Fight.
The Attacks on me by other artists featuring my characters (You can get a full view of each of these images at the Art Fight feature):
Character Commission – Cassius for Psycheen on BlueSky
This was prize art for another commission giveaway winner, Psycheen, who gave me free reign to play with their design of their solarpunk-themed character, Cassius. Find out more about this character’s tragic backstory and watch a timelapse of this piece’s creation here.
Cassiel’s Servant WIP – 3D Modeling
I’ve been very art-blocked on this piece and it has taken me FORever to make progress on it! Likely because I decided it was past time I taught myself how to use Clip Studio Paint’s 3D model posing tools to create reference for myself for the complex aspects of this piece, such as the daggers in perspective and the foreshortening of the main figure.
It took a lot of shouting at the interface to get it right, but I arrived at something very useful for my purposes! I’ll likely be covering this part of the process in a future Secret Sketchbook entry for paid members, so keep an eye out for it.
(Watch the video on this post for some more cool things that I discovered how to do in CSP).
Ask Me Anything
Q: (From Psycheen on BlueSky) What is your favorite trope and why?
A: Watch the answer here. SPOILER ALERT for a 20 year old show (Avatar the Last Airbender)!
Q: (From Psycheen on BlueSky) What do you want to draw, but haven’t yet, and why?
A: Watch the answer here. Lots of Elden Ring: Nightreign gushing!
Q: What art of yours would you like to redo?
A: Watch the answer here.
Happening in August
- Kev’s surgery. With our health insurance finally sorted out, my husband can finally get the surgical procedures he needs! I’ll be focusing on his care, first and foremost. With luck, everything will happen this month without being prolonged any longer and we can be on the road to better health!
- Finishing up the “Cassiel’s Servant” cover. I have the reference completed after much fighting with Clip Studio Paint. It’s finally time to get to the meat of the art-making process!
Links in the video:
- Mimimaru – Artist who did Zelda and Arcane character art in the style of Klimt.
- Christian Angel – Artist of the Elden Ring art done in a classical style.
- Sam Hogg – Artist of the reference art of my character, Nils.
- Psycheen – Artist and creator of Cassius.
- The Uncrucified – My Exalted TTRPG blog
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Here’s to another month of surviving. Hang in there, everyone!
<3 Ang